• About SFDF
  • Who we are?
    • Our Organisation
    • SFDF Staff
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• Policy
• Our Industry
• Ambassadors Network
• Industry Careers
• Schools Programme
• Industry Programmes
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• SFDF Symposium
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SFDF Staff

SFDF has three permanent officials who work together to advise and support FDF on a broad range of issues and activities.

Flora McLean, Director of SFDF

Flora was appointed Director of the Scottish Food and Drink Federation (SFDF) in May 1999, having worked for five years within FDF's Economics and Services Division in the London head office. Prior to joining FDF, Flora worked in the Westminster Parliament (House of Commons) for five years.

Flora's role is to ensure the development of activities, joint initiatives and policies the effectively represent and promote the interests of food and drink manufacturers in Scotland. A key focus of SFDF's work is promoting the competitiveness of the industry in Scotland and improving the legal and socio-economic environment in which our members operate. Therefore, Flora represents the views of food and drink manufacturers to Government Ministers and officials, Parliamentarians, Food Standards Agency Scotland and key stakeholders such as Skills Development Scotland, the enterprise network as well as the agricultural and retail sectors, and academic and research institutes.

Flora Chairs the SFDF Suppliers' Forum, the Schools Programme Advisory Group and the SFDF Obesity Advisory Group and is a member of the FDF Directors' Strategy Group. Until recently, she was Chair of the CBI Scotland Trade Association Committee, Joint Secretary of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Food and industry member of the Scottish Food Enforcement Liaison Group (SFELC).

In representing members' interests, Flora is an active member of a number of key strategic and advisory groups including:

• Scottish Government Joint Ministerial Obesity Group and Food Implementation Group
• Scottish Government Experts Group for the development of Health and Environmental Sustainability Framework
• Executive Group and Skills Strategy Group of Scotland Food and Drink

Alison Carmichael

Alison supports the team in a number of different ways but, in particular, takes responsibility for SFDF's highly respected Suppliers' Forum Programme.

Working closely with a wide cross section of retailers, foodservice operators and wholesalers, Alison ensures SFDF maintain a good understanding of the markets in which our members' operate. Alison is also on hand to provide advice to members on access to these markets. Alison has worked with Scottish food and drink manufacturers for over 20 years.

She was editor of a food trade magazine for 10 years and has managed many regional and national projects spanning foodservice, speciality & fine food, grocery retail, food tourism, export and wholesale. Alison also managed the food & drink industry forum in the West of Scotland. Alison chairs the Food Manufacture Advisory Committee at City of Glasgow College, a position she has held for more than 15 years.

Mary Lawton, Policy Executive

Mary's role is to represent and promote the common interests of SFDF though dialogue with government, regulators and other external organisations and to identify and act upon issues of concern to members.

She liaises with the FDF team in London to ensure that they are briefed on Scottish policy issues and works collaboratively on areas of joint interest. She is a member of the FDF's Health and Wellbeing Stock-take Group and Incident Management Working Group. In order to represent Member's interests Mary is a member of:

• Scottish Food Enforcement Liaison Committee (SFELC), a strategic advisory body to FSA Scotland;
• Scottish Government's Food Implementation Group for the Obesity Action Plan;
• Stakeholder Advisory Group of the Food and Health Alliance
• Scottish Government's Resilience Advisory Board for Scotland (Food) (RABS Food) Mary is a chartered chemist and worked in industry and trade associations in London and in Brussels. More recently, she was responsible for food policy at Consumer Focus Scotland.

Chris Peace, Industry Technical Manager

As Technical Manager, Chris's remit is to provide hands on practical advice and technical support to SMEs in Scotland that are looking to reformulate. This is in response to the challenge to the food industry by government to help lead the fight against obesity by reducing salt, fat, sugar and portion sizes in food products.

Chris has over 25 years experience of working in the food manufacturing industry. He has occupied a number of managerial roles, but most recently specialised in technical and new product development roles, working alongside major UK retail customers.

Previous experience has included the development of low fat products and making reductions in salt to satisfy FSA 2010 and 2012 guidelines. Whilst most recently Chris worked for ABF at Patak's Breads and for Jordans and Ryvita, he has experience with various food categories, from frozen to bakery.

Kirsty Rimmer, Communications Executive

Kirsty's role is to ensure SFDF effectively communicates the priorities and interests of the food and drink manufacturing industry in Scotland to Government, Parliament, the media, key stakeholders and external organisations.

In addition, Kirsty is responsible for communicating key developments impacting on industry as well as the work of the SFDF to Members companies. Along with the SFDF team, Kirsty also has a key role in the organisation of various SFDF events and including the Annual Symposium – a major conference that covers topical issues within the food industry - held jointly with REHIS and IFST.

Kirsty also provides the secretariat to the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Food. Prior to joining SFDF, Kirsty was responsible for public affairs for the representative body of the university sector in Scotland and then managed communications for a key emergency service.

Moira Stalker, National Co-ordinator for SFDF Schools Programme.

Moira is the National Co-ordinator for SFDF's Schools Programme. The programme is funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Skills Development Scotland and Education Scotland.

The food and drink industry in Scotland is a priority industry; however, it continues to experience skills gaps and labour shortages in key areas, including engineering, science and food technology.

SFDF plans to roll out a robust programme of activity across both primary and secondary schools. The national programme aims to demonstrate the relevance of the industry across the curriculum and is designed to inspire and help school children make the connection between the food on their plates, what they are learning in school and employment and rewarding careers in our dynamic industry.

Prior to joining SFDF, Moira worked with Scottish Enterprise's food and drink team.